Dave Grohl on Kurt Cobain: 'There are certain people in your life you prepare yourself to lose'

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In his revealing new memoir, “The Storyteller,” Dave Grohl transports fans on a journey from his formative years in northern Virginia through his punk-rock roots, the tumult of Nirvana and his musical rebirth with Foo Fighters.

A few miles from his hometown Thursday, Grohl regaled a sold-out crowd at the cozy Lincoln Theatre with many of the stories he shares in the book. But this wasn’t the standard author-sits-on-a-stool-and-reads presentation.

In true rock-star fashion, Grohl, created a mini-show for this limited tour (which included stops in London and New York, followed by  The Ford in Los Angeles Oct. 12-13).

His casual manner is ideally suited for this type of unscripted interaction that resided somewhere between “Springsteen on Broadway” and having a few shots of whiskey at the bar down the block.

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His starting point as a musician was the Beatles, thus the show's opening found him sitting on the floor of the stage, his lank dark hair swinging as he played along to “Eight Days a Week,” just as he did as a boy.

In “The Storyteller,” Grohl is a reliable narrator who inherently possesses conversational wit and a photographic memory for details, such as the brown shag carpeting in Sound City Studios where Nirvana recorded “Nevermind” and the words his beloved mother, Virginia, told him when he informed her he was quitting school to pursue music: “You better be good.”

“If your kid is a musician, you give them love and you get the (expletive) out of the way,” Grohl, 52, explained.

Dressed in charcoal jeans and a matching shirt with the sleeves rolled up, Grohl occasionally sipped from a red Solo cup and sucked on a cigarette, digging deep in his pocket for a lighter while never missing a quip.

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In speech peppered with his favorite expletive, Grohl spun a hilariously vivid tale about a fortuitous opportunity to play drums for Iggy Pop while on tour with the D.C.-based punk band Scream. After Scream dissolved, Grohl faced a new crossroads: whether to move to Washington state to play with Nirvana, already an underground success.

“They were different,” Grohl said of his initial meetings with Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic. “They had songs. They had Kurt.”

Even casual fans could savor the opportunity to hear Grohl talk about sleeping on Cobain’s couch – which was a foot too short for his 6-foot frame – and listening to the singer’s turtle bang its head against the terrarium glass every night.

But the most exhilarating moments of Grohl’s chat came with music. He slipped behind a four-piece drum kit to bash along to “Smells Like Teen Spirit” with the same maniacal energy of his younger years, and more than two hours into his appearance, strapped on a guitar for “This is a Call,” the first Foo Fighters song he recorded.

Grohl’s chronicles about the challenges Nirvana faced after the its explosive debut – how does a band built on an indie-punk ethos reconcile being “one of them” in the mainstream? – were potent admissions. But the most emotional moment was a quiet tribute to Cobain, who died by suicide in 1994. 

“There are certain people in your life you prepare yourself to lose,” Grohl said solemnly, and with genuine emotion.

The house lights of the theater had remained low to create a more casual vibe between Grohl and the crowd. But at his mention of Cobain’s death, the room went dark and a portrait of the alt-rock icon glowed behind Grohl. The silence in the room was palpable, save for the sound of Grohl inhaling his cigarette.

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With his easygoing smile, Grohl adeptly shifted the mood to one of positivity and the birth of Foo Fighters, which initially consisted of a solo Grohl. “I called it a plural name so people would think it was a band,” he said with a laugh.

Now that band is readying for its induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in late October, proof that Grohl’s journey – both musical and personal – has many more chapters.